I haven't been able to post for a while and wanted to answer this posting. If you notice the questions are all basic recall type questions. Kids today have so much more to learn than these kids. They need to learn higher level thinking skills and research skills that kids 100 years ago didn't know how to use. Education was pour the knowledge in and the kids just repeat it back on a test.

I taught first grade for 25 of the 35 years I was a teacher. In those years what a first grader was require to know increased greatly. I watched those students progress though their years of education. They would return and share what they were learning in high school I was amazed at the difference in what was required of them to finish high school and what was required in my years as a student. Trust me it was much more now . One of my students is now an English teacher at an award winning high school here in Orange County. Her students work hard and learn in her classes. She is an awesome teacher.

Kids are still learning , still bright , just learn different things. Ask those kids in Kansas 100 years ago to explain a computer , how to program a vcr or their ring tones on a cell phone, how to burn a cd , how to play video games, do you think they would be able to do any of these things? So no, I do not think kids these days are dumber which by the way was a banned word in my classroom as dumb means, if you look it up . lacking the ablity to speak. None of my students lacked the ability to speak , trust me!!!!